Patent Documents 1-3 disclose conventional tablet feeders. As shown in FIG. 10A-10D, for example, a typical conventional tablet feeder comprises a driving portion 10 fixed to a drawer rack or the like in a tablet dispensing apparatus for power supply and control, and a tablet cassette 20 detachably mounted on the driving portion 10 for facilitating replenishment of tablets. The tablet feeder stores a number of tablets 4 in the tablet cassette 20 at random and is configured to feed out tablets 4 one by one from the tablet cassette 20 by intermittently or continuously operating the driving portion 10 as needed.
In such tablet feeder (10, 20), the tablet cassette 20 comprises a tablet container 21 and a rotor 23. The tablet container 21 includes a bottom portion 21A and a peripheral wall portion 21B, and contains a number of tablets 4, which have been replenished by opening a lid 22, in its internal space. The rotor 23 is configured to rotate centering on its axis portion as driven by the driving portion 10 via a rotation transmission shaft 27. The rotor 23 has the rotation transmission shaft 27 which constitutes the axis portion of the rotor and rotatably penetrates the bottom wall portion 21A of the tablet container 21, and rotates centering on the rotation transmission shaft 27 (the axis portion). An upper surface of the rotor 23 is shaped to cause the tablets to align while the rotor rotates. The rotor 23 has a plurality of partition portions 25 formed on its outer peripheral portion. The partition portions 25 of the rotor 23 radially extend and are circumferentially spaced at a given interval to partition a space defined between the rotor 23 and the peripheral wall portion 21B of the tablet container 21 at an equal pitch to form a plurality of tablet receiving portions 26. An outlet port 28 is formed in the bottom wall portion 21A. A partition plate 29 is disposed upwardly of the outlet port 28 to bridge over two adjacent partition portions 25. The tablet container 21 and the rotor 23 are made of a hard material while the partition plate 29 is made of a softer material than metal or hard material not to damage the tablets 4. The partition plate 29 is disposed such that its height may be adjusted.
Such tablet cassette 20 is intended to be used for tablets, not powder medicines. Typically, a tablet cassette is used for tablets shaped in circular disc like illustrated disc-shaped tablets 4. A tablet cassette is also used for tablets shaped in regular polygon or cylindrical capsules.
In addition to tablets of regular shape such as a circle, a globe, a regular polygon and a regular polyhedron, a tablet cassette is also used for tablets of irregular shape such as a diamond, spindle-shaped tablets having an expanded central portion, and halved tablets prepared by cutting a complete tablet for doses of less than one tablet.